Oleg Galtsev, Belarusian programmer and graduate of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the U.S. Embassy in Belarus, is launching the first bionics startup in Belarus. The inventor has designed a functional prosthetic right arm for his father, who lost his arm about 20 years ago. The programmer has created a "smart" prosthetic arm that costs almost 30 times less than an alternative product from Germany.

Oleg Galtsev (on the left) in 1776 Startup Incubator(Washington D.C., US) during a study visit to the USA organized within the framework of IVLP Photo: odb-office.eu

Today, Oleg Galtsev's father has felt his right arm for the first time in 20 years: before that, he used a regular cosmetic prosthetic, which simply hid the fact that he was missing part of the arm.

Oleg Galtsev, inventor (Belarus)

A couple of years ago, I saw a TV report about production of bionic prosthetics in Germany. A person can control these prosthetics by contracting muscles on what's left of their arm...

It was also the time when first 3D printers appeared, and 3D began to develop rapidly. I thought: "Why don't I create my own prosthetic?" That's how "MyoTriton"was born.

Oleg Galtsev, inventor, Minsk

Now, the Belarusian inventor aspires to make this type of prosthetics available to all groups of people: he plans to refine the drawings so that anyone in need can use them, be it a child or an adult. At the moment, MyoTriton team is looking for industrial designers and sponsors who want to help develop this project.